Over Half the Distance Already Done: Dramatic Scene at Malakal Khartoum, Jan, 3.
Captain Alay Cobham has arrived at Mongolia, 150 miles north of the Uganda border.
Captain Cobham departed from Croydon on November 16 on a trans. African flight to Capetown London, Jan. 5.
Captain Cobham, the British airman, had on Sunday flown 4,600 miles of his 8,000-mile flight from London to Cape Town. On Sunday landed at Mongolia in the Sudan, whence he se interesting message to the "Daily Mail." He expresses satisfaction at having negotiated the so-called dreaded Sudan swamp district on the upper reaches of the Nile. On the latest stage of his flight from Malawal to Mongolia, a distance of nearly 400 miles, he discovered that by following the backwater of the upper Ni called Bakre Laaraf, he could avoid ever, he says, the Siddele Jaguar engine did not fail him. He mentions that already the irrigation department is cutting canals through the swamp area, directing the water and preventing floods. He adds: "I am convinced that it will imple matter to run a regular air ie, expecially a hydroplane servic slong the course of the Nile as far Mongolia, "We are now anxious to investigate between Mongolia, Jinja and Kite sum on Lake Victoria Nyanzi which route, if practical, will mean that an air mail service from Kenya to Cairo can be run regularly in two ays, linking with the Mediterranean boat' services. Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika mails would, therefore, take only six or seven days from instead of nearly a month Captain Cobham describes how his aeroplane was received by the tatives at Malakal, They showed no at the huge bird-like chine'
approach and landing, taking it for the grandest thing a white man knows. While the aeroplane stood under the palms the native danced a wild war dance around it, repeatedly charging towards it and making spear thrusts, It took Ca tain Cobham and his mechanic all their courage to stand calmly in front of the aeroplane, facing the onslaught, and it seemed inevitable that the native spears, even if they missed the two Englishmen, would bed themselves in the wings of the aeroplane. But the mass of savage humanity pulled up dead with their spear points a few inches from the Englishmen's bodies—British Wireless through Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.